Jet weaving looms, particularly air jet weaving looms using air jets for the weft insertion, are capable of operating with an r.p.m. of the main drive shaft in excess of 1000 r.p.m. compared to gripper looms in which so-called rapiers are used for the weft insertion into the shed.
It is known to connect high speed heald or dobby looms, referred to herein as the loom or looms, to eccentric drives for the formation or changing of the shed formed by the warp threads. Slower working looms, namely looms with a mechanical weft insertion instead of an air jet weft insertion are connected to so-called shaft drives for the shed formation or shed change. The reasons for using either an eccentric drive or a shaft drive for the shed formation depend, among others, on the type of fabric or article to be produced on the loom. The eccentric shed formation drive and the shaft shed formation drive will be referred to herein simply as shed drives.
For example, if it is necessary to exchange an eccentric shed drive on a loom by a shaft shed drive, such an exchange requires a substantial effort and expense, particularly in man hours for the time consuming disassembly or disconnection of the currently used shed drive from the loom followed by an even more time consuming installation of the other shed drive. The installation of a new shed drive is time consuming because positioning and adjusting operations must be performed so that the new shed drive may be precisely coupled to the loom.